Demon Squad 7: Exit Wounds Page 16

He forced a grin. “No, I’m slightly more resilient than that, have no fear.”

  “Still, you might want to get that checked out.” I pointed at his stomach, his lumpy wrist pressed so hard against his stomach that he was leeching the color from his skin.

  “I’ll survive, I assure you.” There was no hiding the agitation he clearly tried to cover up. After dealing with Lucifer my entire life, I knew a liar when I saw one.

  “All right, I’ll leave you be then.” I stood up, nodding as I started off. Then I stopped, glancing over my shoulder at the angel. “You’re not, uh, missing anything, are you?”

  His eyes widened for just a flash before he got them under control, his stump twitching against his torso. “I’ve nothing to miss, friend. Why do you ask?”

  “No reason.” I smiled. “It’ll be daylight soon, so you’d best start getting ready. We’ve got some miles ahead of us,” I said, and then left him to his paranoia. It tasted like awesome.

  He shuffled about in his alcove as I went over and sat down beside Karra, my hand going to her belly to feel the swell of our child beneath her shirt. She sighed in her sleep, the sound tugging at my conscience. I needed to get them home somehow, and Ilfaar had a piece of that puzzle. Though I wasn’t quite up to speed on all the particulars yet, I was starting to see how the game was being played by everyone else. And if I’d learned anything from my father about winning, it was this:

  I needed to cheat.

  Twenty

  (Scarlett)

  A golden gleam streaked through the sky above Old Town, turning sharply to come down just yards from where we stood.

  “I presume your summons has something to do with our newly resurfaced Angel of Death?” Raguel asked in his graveled voice as he met the gaze of Uriel with a conspiratorial wink.

  The guardian of Azrael’s mystical energies, given to him for safekeeping after the failure of the war on Eden, Raguel stank of death yet still gleamed with holy power. So much so that it wafted off him in almost violent waves that set my skin to dancing beneath its touch. The angel made no effort to rein his essence in.

  He was a conundrum of mystical misrepresentation. Dressed in his customary bronze armor, battered with age, he was one of the few archangels who did not exude a sense of the Father’s Godliness or causal reserve. Raguel was simply himself.

  Long gray hair sat tied in a messy tail behind his head, pulling his craggy face tight so that his flicker of an amused smile looked more pained than pleasurable. His narrow blue eyes glimmered with frost, though I knew that to be his nature and not some condemnation as to Uriel’s call.

  “It does indeed, brother.” Uriel grinned. “And we could use your help.”

  “If you’re looking for insight into that murderer’s head, you’ve come to the wrong source.” Raguel came over, surveying each of us in turn, giving only a sharp nod of acknowledgement as his eyes passed over me. “I might well have inherited his energies, but I am hardly on speaking terms with the bitter remnant of his soul that resides within me.”

  “Nothing so grand, I admit.”

  I watched as Raguel puzzled over Uriel’s words, realization dawning across his features. “Am I to be the hook or the worm, brother?”

  “I would say worm for the moment, though I’m certain we’ll need an extra cudgel to bring in our catch.”

  Raguel smiled, and there was no sense of falseness to it. “I knew when you had Forcalor pass along your strange missive that I was in for some excitement.” He straightened his sword belt before continuing. “Perhaps we should begin this little expedition before Metatron finds the need to go looking for me.”

  Uriel let out a low chuckle. “Fortunately for us, we only needed you to grace the Earth with your glorious presence for our foe to come to us.” The archangel cast a furtive gaze to our backs, motioning subtly with his chin.

  I let my senses loose as his words sank in. The shimmer of an opening gate a short distance away crackled in my minds eyes for a moment before fading beneath the constant flux of Raguel’s energies.

  “Gate,” Rachelle called out, turning toward it, pausing halfway. “And another. We’ve got incoming.”

  Uriel only nodded. “You, Miss Knight, and you, Mister Li, might find it best to remain over there,” he pointed off toward a narrow, closed off alley a short distance away, “while our erstwhile enemy flanks us.”

  “Shit,” Michael cursed and grabbed for Rachelle’s arm, leading her off to the alley as the first of Azrael’s minions made their presence known at our backs. The second force appeared a moment later, placing us between them both.

  “Lycanthropes,” Raguel said, shifting his gaze from one group to the other. “It seems Azrael has retained his allies despite his incarceration.”

  “He’s had time to rally them since Triggaltheron freed his consciousness.” Uriel drew his sword, letting its flames simmer as the weres approached.

  My chest tightened at seeing what Azrael had sent against us, yet once more I had to wonder why he acted through intermediaries rather than do his own dirty work. Neither of the lycan forces seemed to care why they were pressed into action, only that they were. They advanced with glee stretched across their toothy maws, a swagger to their movement. All in all, I estimated there were fifty of the creatures, a liberal assortment of werewolves and hybrids, though most were on the smaller side of the creature spectrum, which struck me as odd. I had seen Azrael command armies of bears and lions, so why were we beset upon by wolves and dogs?

  “Why would…?” I started, but Uriel raised a hand for silence.

  “Let on nothing of what you might suspect, sister,” He answered. “Focus your efforts on Azrael’s spawn and leave the questions until after.”

  There was a command in his voice, yet also a warning. Something lingered in the air he had not deigned to tell me, but I knew well enough not to press. At least not then.

  “Take the rear, Raguel, and Scarlett and I shall deal with the fore.”

  Raguel unsheathed his sword and bowed with mock intensity. “Most certainly. Nothing like an evening romp with lycanthropes to begin one’s day of disobedience of our master.” He grinned widely. “Come on then, beasties,” he called out as he drifted toward the rear group, making sure the alley where Rachelle and Michael hovered remained behind him. “Let’s make this a party.”

  I glanced at Uriel as he, too, advanced. There was nothing impressed upon his features but a stoic expression of stone as he approached the weres with me at his side. My tongue burned with the effort to hold it restrained, but the creatures gave me no more time to contemplate what Uriel had planned that I was unaware of. They came at us with a choir of deafening roars, and all I could do was surrender to the inevitable. Everto Trucido sang as the creatures charged.

  Twenty-One

  Morning arrived with all the charm of a colonoscopy tech.

  “Time to get moving again, people,” Katon called out, rallying the troops, so to speak.

  Chatterbox’s answer was to hum the chorus to Dark Angel’s “Death is Certain (Life is Not).” It made me grateful I was the only real metalhead among the group so no one caught the reference since he didn’t actually sing the words. Even Katon, who was a Judas Priest fashion fanatic, missed it. He was way more old school in his musical taste.

  I tapped CB on the head as Rala carried him out into the main chamber. “You really have to hum that one? At least sing something positive like “Hell Awaits” or “At Dawn They Sleep.” That last one would be quite welcome.”

  He grunted, his version of the shrug, and broke into a burped rendition of “Chemical Warfare,” which was wholly fitting given the state of his breath.

  I waved the air clear, but the foul stink of rotten funk reminded me of something. “Anyone up for breakfast?”

  “We eat on the way,” Katon handed the fur-wrapped slabs of meat to Venai.

  She looked at it with disgust but took it after a nod from Shaw. Whatever the wight held over Venai’s head had
to have been a doozy to make the Nephilim so compliant. She was in tits deep with the DSI, that much was clear.

  Katon clambered up the ladder and popped the door open, slipping outside while the rest of us waited without speaking. A few moments later he popped his head in and called us out. We followed like zombies, everyone dragging ass, the wear of miles pressing down on us. It’d only get worse as the day wore on.

  I glanced over at Ilfaar as he was helped up the ladder. His face was lined with anxiety, and he remained quiet, only letting out the occasional grunt as he was jarred. The red lump of his missing hand pressed hard against his wound, never once leaving it. He glanced up at me as he slithered from the door, and I gave him my most welcoming smile. I’m sure the sharpened gleam of my borrowed eyeteeth conveyed my sincerity.

  He turned away without a word as Rahim slipped under his shoulder, and the two started off with Katon. Shaw and Venai went after, the rest of us hanging out behind them. I lagged a little further behind than the rest, claiming to guard the rear, but I was more interested in having a few quiet moments to think.

  If Katon’s estimate was correct, we were closing in on the mountains. It was hard to tell from within the colorful forest, little more than a hint of the outside world seeping in through its branches, but I could believe that the ground was growing slightly harder as we traveled on. The soft soil we’d tread for days felt as if it had lost some of its sponginess, our steps a bit easier for not having to shake so much of the black mud from our feet. Or maybe that was all wishful thinking.

  Those who needed to eat had while we walked, and the rest of us tried not to look disgusted. Raw, bloody meat was more the breakfast of Neanderthals than champions. All it needed was a cup of tree sap to wash it down. Karra wiped the drippings from her chin with a resigned expression, but we both understood that it was better than having nothing. The baby needed food more than the rest of us. I was glad that at least one of us could make the trip in relative comfort.

  Ilfaar glanced back my direction a number of times, but he never lingered long with his looks. He didn’t have to. I hadn’t bothered closing the distance because I wasn’t completely sure of what it was he was hiding. Shaw, however, seemed to have a better idea. She’d settled in behind the crippled pair and had closed the distance some, though not overtly. I might have been imagining it, but it looked as if her hackles were raised. She didn’t move with her usual grace but more as though she were stalking. Her hand clutched to the weapons she collected from the greenies, out and ready to go should she need them. It seemed a bit much since we hadn’t encountered so much as a breeze as we droned on through the woods. Still, she seemed ready to pounce.

  A handful of hours passed in muted silence as I watched the tension ahead of me. At some point I’d tuned it all out without realizing. Katon’s whispered, “Hold,” brought me back with a start. Ahead of us the trees had thinned, the bleak soil giving way to brown earth and gray stone. The shift in terrain was sudden as though two different worlds had been jammed together to create one. The ground past the tree line rose sharply, though not so sharp as to stop our progress.

  “About damn time,” Veronica said, earning agreeable mutters from Rala and CB. None seemed to realize the easy nature of our travel was about to disappear.

  “We’ll rest here for a short while, and then start up the mountain,” Katon told us. “There is no cover from the air, so if the guardians find cause to fly over us, everyone needs to hit the dirt and stay there until it passes. We can ill afford to draw their attention, at this point. Am I clear?”

  Everyone nodded or gave some sign in the affirmative; all except Ilfaar. He clutched tighter to his stomach and stared out past the trees. “They will most likely be looking for us, friends.”

  “Why is that?” I asked before anyone else could.

  He glanced over his shoulder at me. “It is their job to protect that which sits atop the aerie.” The angel let out a tired sigh. “They would be remiss in their duty were they to simply allow us to scale the side without notice.”

  “And yet it would appear that many others have, if what the green-skinned folks said can be believed,” Rahim added, pretty much implying what we’d been thinking all along. Ilfaar was one of the others Mia had mentioned, the ones who’d been traveling through the prison for some reason or another. If his people had done it, so could we.

  Ilfaar smiled. “And they would be correct, though they are ignorant as to how such a task is accomplished.”

  “As are we,” Katon said as he walked over to the edge of the trees, “so why not explain it to the rest of us simpletons?”

  “Of course.” The angel grinned. “While magic holds no sway here, its energies drained the instant one enters this realm, its Creator had yet to imagine the advances of His creations when this world was first conceived.”

  “Technology,” Karra said with a groan.

  “Quite right, young lady. The limitations on magic do nothing to counter advanced electronics.”

  “Of which we have none,” I muttered, though it did explain how Ilfaar’s cronies, whoever they were, had managed to slip free of this place, though it certainly didn’t answer why they’d been there in the first place or what it had to do with God and Lucifer’s war. That was something I’d have to figure out once I got the chance.

  Ilfaar nodded. “Which means we must do this the old fashioned way, though I suspect the guardians will be far more difficult to attend to than if we were suitably prepared to avoid them from the onset.” He gave a casual shrug. “But we have no choice if we wish to leave this place for the device that only I can operate sits atop the highest plateau.”

  “How convenient.” I glanced at the rest of the group to see them staring at Ilfaar with a mix of uncertainty and distrust. Only Shaw showed anything different. She had the makings of a grin coloring her pale lips. It was only when she noticed me staring that it disappeared as though it’d never been there.

  She nodded my direction. “Seems we’ve a bit of a climb ahead of us.”

  “Seems so.” I was half-tempted to send her on ahead and use her as bait for the dragons, but given our lack of fighters, we would probably need her before too long if we were to have any hope of reaching the top.

  “I spy a few ways that would leave us less exposed across the face of the mountain, but there is no perfect path that protects us the entire way.” Katon returned from the tree line shaking his head. “The first part of the trip seems the easiest, but then that leaves us compromised once we’re beyond that point. We’ll be on the steeper part of the climb, which will make it harder to defend against an aerial foe with an impressive reach advantage.”

  “Couldn’t we just ride our own dragon to the top?” Shaw asked, gesturing toward the little alien.

  All eyes went to Rala. The girl still looked as if she’d run a marathon. Her normally bright orange skin was pale, the black stripes of it standing out in sharp contrast. She could have been in the after-market Halloween bin at a discount store and no one would have bothered to give her a second glance. The kid didn’t even defend being called a dragon.

  “Leave her be,” Veronica told Shaw, the threat clear in her voice.

  “Even if she were capable of transforming, there’s no way she could carry all of us in one go let alone quickly enough to keep us from being spotted,” I said, stepping in. “Since none of us thought to bring a cloaking device, the next best thing is Katon, so it’s decided.”

  “Is it now?” Shaw asked. Her smile was feral, but she kept her eyes on mine even though I could tell she longed to look at Ilfaar to see

  “It is unless you have some other plan you’d like to share with the group.” I smiled back. “You don’t now, do you? Have another plan, that is.”

  Rahim stepped between us. “You’ve remained with us this long, Shaw, for what I imagine is a lack of options or thinking we’re the best of those options you might have. I don’t suspect that has changed much in the last few mom
ents.”

  She peeled her eyes from me to meet the wizard’s gaze. “No, I don’t believe they have.”

  “Good. Then we’re agreed on our course?”

  “For the time being, I suppose we are.”

  Which meant a whole lot of nothing, but Rahim seemed satisfied. I knew he wasn’t gullible enough to believe her, but he’d at least headed off an argument and helped expose Shaw’s underlying discontent if not her plot. Fortunately I had a pretty good idea that it started and ended with Ilfaar. As long as I kept an eye on each of them, I could probably head off anything before it got out of hand. Rahim’s efforts only made that easier as the rest of the group would be watching her now, too.

  “Then let’s get moving before we grow roots.” Katon waved us all on.

  “What do I do with this,” Venai asked, holding up the bag of meat.

  “Strap it to your back and bring it along,” he answered without even looking at her. “We might need it further up the climb.”

  I nearly choked on that but fought to keep my face impassive. The enforcer had pretty much set her up to be the first one attacked should we encounter something, a nice, sloppy pack of raw meat slung over her back to draw critters in. I so wanted to high five him right then. He didn’t give me the chance.

  “We’ll need to move as quickly as we can,” he said and started off before anyone could contradict him.

  The rest of us did what he ordered, moving little faster than a herd of sloths. It’d have to do. With Rala so run down she could barely walk, and Rahim helping the angel navigate the hill, fast wasn’t a word in our vocabulary. At this point, we could have turned Chatterbox loose and he’d have taken the lead.

  Katon, earning a point for his supreme patience, never said a word. He just led us higher and higher up the slope, angling us with frequent points and gestures to keep us mostly neck deep in the brown foliage that sprouted from the hill as we closed in on the stony lip that jutted from the mountainside. A few prods got us moving between cover, but he’d been right about how easy the early part of the trip would be. Outside of the slight incline and rocky ground under our feet, it wasn’t any more difficult than walking up a sidewalk in San Francisco.